Thursday, December 20, 2012

Konjaku Monogatarishū Vol. 2, Tale 1: Śuddhodana's Death #1 (part 5)

Fig. 1:
暫ク在
テ佛虛
空ヨリ
難陀阿
難羅睺
羅等ヲ
引将テ
來リ給
ヘリ
Last time, Śuddhodana was miraculously cured of his illness. Continuing the story:
しばらありましテ、仏、虚空こくうヨリ難陀・阿難・羅睺羅等ヲ引将テきたリ給ヘリ。
 After a while had passed, the Buddha, leading Nanda, Ānanda, Rāhula, etc. from the empty sky, arrived (fig. 1).
I was a little confused about the meaning of the sentence in fig. 1. 「ヨリ」 here functions as a grammatical equivalent to 「から」 in modern Japanese, so I based the translation on a literal interpretation of that. However, that seems a little off.

Fig. 2: 先
ツ大王佛
ヲ見奉テ
涙ヲ流シ
給フ事雨
ノ如シ
The meaning of 「虚空」 wasn't entirely clear either. On the one hand, it has the secular meaning of "empty sky" or "empty space". But it is also the Chinese translation (漢訳) of the Buddhist term Ākāśa (Sanskrit: "आकाश"). Perhaps there is some special significance here related to that meaning. Then again, the word might just have been selected because of the religious nature of the story, even though the meaning here is intended to be the first one I mentioned.

The pattern seen with the verb 「給フ」 at the end of fig. 1 is the same as that seen at the end of fig. 8 in this post (see the explanation there).
先ヅ大王、仏ヲ見たてまつりテ、涙ヲ流シ給フ事雨ノ如シ。
First, the Great King, seeing the Buddha, shed tears, as if it were raining (fig. 2). 
Fig.3: 合掌
シテ喜給フ
事无限シ
There's not much to say about fig. 2. Just keep in mind that 「給フ」 is in the attributive form (連体形) here, rather than the predicative form (終止形). The two forms just happen to be identical in appearance, since 「給フ」 is a yodan verb.
合掌シテよろこび給フ事限リ无シ。
[Śuddhodana] pressed his hands together, and his joy was limitless (fig. 3).
As indicated above, the word 「合掌」is a common Buddhist hand gesture, also known as añjali (Sanskrit: "अञ्जलि").

Fig. 4:
佛父ノ王
ノ御傍ニ
在シテ本
経シ説
給フニ
Additionally, in fig. 3, we see the same 「給フ」 as in fig. 2 (i.e., in the attributive form).
王ノ御傍おそばありまシテ本経ほんぎょうとき給フニ、大王すなは阿那含果あなごんかヲ得たまひシ。
The Buddha was at his father's side and preached the main sutra, at which (fig. 4) the Great King immediately achieved anāgāmihood (fig. 5).
Fig. 5:
大王即チ
阿那含果
ヲ得給シ
I got pretty confused about fig. 4. First of all, there seems to be something missing between 「本」 and 「経」 in the original script, given the amount of blank space there. But they form a word together anyway, so I'm not entirely sure that's actually the case. Even if nothing is missing, though, what exactly is the "main sutra"? It seems to be a general term (i.e., doesn't refer to a particular sutra), so perhaps some more context is necessary here.

Edit: as Matt has suggested in the comments, this could be 「本生経」, or the sutras expounded by the Buddha during his lifetime. However, there is no definitive evidence/proof of that.

In fig. 5, we see the term 「即チ」, usually written as 「すなわち」 nowadays. Whereas the modern Japanese meaning is restricted to "that is" or "i.e.", in the premodern language, it also had the meaning "immediately". Given the context, that meaning seemed most appropriate.

Finally, we see the term 「阿那含」, which is a Buddhist ateji term meaning anāgāmi, or a person who has reached the third of the four stages of enlightenment. From the comments below by Matt, the suffix 「果」 indicates attainment of enlightenment as a result of Buddhist practice.

4 comments:

  1. The 虚空 and 本経 issues are the sort of thing where first principles start to break down, aren't they? If 虚空 was meant as a technical term (akasa -> arupajhana), then it could be that in the story the 5th jhana is a "real place" that works like Doraemon's dokodemo door. But it could just be vague Buddha-magic as well. Hard sf vs fantasy in the context of Buddhist doctrine!

    Either way, it does muddle the story a bit. At first it was about Buddha not being able to get back in time. Then it was about a miraculous healing, so we start to think oh, maybe Buddha will have time to walk back afterwards. Then Buddha teleports to the scene! He'll be distributing ponies next.

    本経 is another interesting issue. At first I wondered if maybe it was some kind of 闕字 phenomenon. But I don't remember seeing it used in the context of Buddhism before, and that seems like an odd place to put it. If it's meant to be a particular sutra, I don't think there are any sutras going by the name 本経 today, but there might have been back then. The word 本生経 exists -- sutras expounded by Buddha when he was alive (本生) (as opposed to Mahayana sutras, exegeses, etc. as I understand it). But maybe the word here is just supposed to mean "the basic sutras" or "the main sutras" or "the foundation of his teaching" or whatever. Probably the best way to figure it out is to rigorously study Heian-period references to Buddhist literature and look for patterns there. Shouldn't take more than a few years.

    Also, slight typos in transcription: 限リ无シ → 无限シ (an interesting way to write it), 仏ノ父、王 → 仏、父ノ王.

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    1. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

      「仏ノ父、王」 was an accidental mistake, but the rewriting of 无限シ as 限リ无シ was intentional, as it was done in the original transcription, and I followed that. But most likely, it would be read as かぎりなし either way, where 无限 is read as かぎりな, a sort of 熟字訓 or something similar. Sort of like 「不知」→「知らず」.

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    2. Yes, I agree -- it would definitely be read "kagiri nashi". Sorry, I didn't realize you did it on purpose!

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  2. Oh, one more: "anagami" is actually 阿那含, the 果 is 意訳 for phala (fruit). I don't think it affects the translation though: "he achieved the fruits of anagamihood" or whatever, basically what you already have.

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